Some people use persimmon seeds to predict the winter. Photo courtesy Chris Wilhoite/soulesgarden.com
Some of us look to woolly worms to predict the upcoming winter and some of us rely on persimmon seeds.
Chris Wilhoite, co-owner of Soules Garden on Indianapolis’ south side, has been splitting American persimmon seeds (Diospyros virginiana) for about five years to see what they bode for winter. “I got interested because there are a couple of trees on the property,” he said. “I tried to eat one before it was ripe. I think they get sweeter after a frost or two. I tried one in early fall… super sour and made me pucker up.”
He learned of the folklore associated with the seeds and their prognostication of the type of winter we’ll have. The “Old Farmer’s Almanac” said if the seed is spoon-shaped, it means lots of heavy, wet snow. If it’s fork-shaped, the winter will be mild and the snow will be powdery. If the seeds look like a knife, “expect to be cut by icy, cutting winds,” the magazine reports.
“We actually do not harvest them,” Wilhoite said. “The raccoons eat them—just a guess. It would be nice to harvest and make pudding or whatever, but there is just way too much going on” with closing the nursery for the season. How reliable are the seeds’ predictions? “I sort of forget to look back and see how close they were to predicting. I think I’ll start a journal or something from now on,” he said.
Forager Ellen Zachos, author of the soon-to-be-published Wildcrafted Cocktails, suggests making a frozen persimmon margarita. You can use fresh persimmon pulp or frozen (Tuttle Orchards in Greenfield, Indiana, has frozen pulp). Here is her recipe.
Frozen persimmon margarita. (C) Ellen Zachos
Frozen Persimmon Margarita
To rim the glass, combine 1 tablespoon, sugar, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, and 1 teaspoon ground, dried spicebush berries in a small bowl, and mix well. Transfer to a saucer. (Skip the spicebush berries if you don’t have on hand.)
Pour a tablespoon of lime juice into another saucer and dip the rim of a chilled glass in the juice. Then dip the rim in the sugar and salt blend, and set the glass aside.
Cocktail
2 ounces smooth persimmon purée
1 1/2 ounces reposado tequila
1/2 ounce Cointreau
1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon simple syrup
1 cup ice cubes
1 lime wedge, for garnish
Combine the persimmon purée, tequila, Cointreau, lime juice, simple syrup and ice cubes in a blender. Blend until the texture is thick and smooth. Pour into the rimmed glass and garnish with a wedge of lime.